Female-Only Hotel Floors Make A Comeback

A relic of the mid-20th century, women-only hotel floors seem to be on the rise. Depending on the hotel, the rooms tend to offer upgraded amenities meant to cater to female business travelers. A Washington, D.C. hotel that offers such floors connects guests to female networking events.

According to MSNBC, the trend is spreading, showing up in Denmark and Canada, as well as New York City’s Premier Hotel, and Crowne Plaza hotels in Washington, D.C., and Minnesota. The story says female-only floors also started to pop up about 10 years ago, but fizzled out partly because the rooms weren’t in tune with what customers wanted.

Says an Atlanta traveler who often stays on a female-only floor at a Minnesota hotel, “I can put on a bathrobe and go out there and grab a snack and it is fine because you know you won’t run into a guy. And it is kind of pretty.”

Separate clothing in department stores is a different story: As a guy, I could go into the ladies section (or even a clothing shop with only women’s clothes), try stuff on, and purchase it. I have a feeling that I am not allowed into a women’s only floor of a hotel.

Additionally, there are no ‘men’s only’ floors to these hotels. Imagine if they replaced this with ‘white only’ floors with “upgraded amenities” and ‘anybody’ floors, including whites. There would be a royal shitfit and plenty of lawsuits to accompany it.

Actually in New Jersey, a guy sued for the “ladies night” and won. NJ bars are no longer allowed to do this. Needless to say ALOT of men were pissed about this because the whole point of ladies night was to bring the ladies into places that might otherwise be sausage fests.

Where did anybody say men can’t do it? If hotels thought it would be a welcome feature, they’d surely implement it. Unless you think the world’s hotels are run by a mysterious cabal of man-hating feminists.

I hope you realize you sound just like the kind of ‘feminist’ you’re talking about. “ZOMG, men and women are not being treated exactly the same in some fashion, unleash the butthurt!”

The feminist groups that have sued and protested every other men-only facility would say that. It would happen in the same way that these groups think women-only gyms or exercise rooms are just peachy and men-only gyms cannot be allowed.

RickN said it well. I do not mean to come off as paranoid, but we have seen men-only things take plenty of heat in the past. Either both sexes should be allowed to have their own “special” places or neither sex should. As other people have pointed out separate =/= equal. So, if you feel that way then neither sex should have their own “special” place. I really do not understand why people are so against such a simple statement as “Just treat both sexes equally and everything should be fine.” How is not doing that anything but sexist?

If you truly feel that women having a floor to themselves (in a hotel were the majority of the business clientele is bound to be male) is inequality, feel free to protest and sue them to fight for your ‘right’ to stay on whichever floor you want. The rest of us will feel free to think you are an idiot with no sense of perspective, as that’s our right. But what you are doing is going out of your way to imply that ‘feminists’ would take that position, when there is no data to back that assertion up. Most feminists I know are mostly concerned with wage inequality and access to reproductive healthcare, and would consider getting upset about a men’s-only floor juvenile and petty. As evidenced by the fact that there are apparently men’s-only hotels all over the place and I haven’t heard an outcry from the feminist community.

We are already separate but equal in many places. Bathrooms, locker rooms, departments in the hospital. We generally have different hobbies (obviously individuals can and do do pretty much whatever they want. But I notice that there aren’t many women in the competitive video gaming community, and there aren’t many men in the local Rose Club- it is what it is). Men and women, overall, are fundamentally different creatures, and taking that into account means sometimes treating us equally does NOT mean treating us the same.

Personally, I find the idea of stuffing us all into the same mold horribly distasteful. While I love many male-oriented hobbies (and appreciate being able to partake in them in the company of supportive guys), I also love being a woman and love that men are men. This concept of a gender-neutral society kind of skeeves me out. Maybe I’m just old-fashioned.

And did you seriously just cite anonymous Internet commenter “RickN” as your source that “The feminist groups that have sued and protested every other men-only facility would say that.” His comment makes it clear he takes a dim view of “feminist groups”, he did not cite any examples of the behavior he attributes to them, and yet you feel he is the most appropriate person to be relying on for info on what feminists *would* say?

If both sexes *were* treated equally, this wouldn’t be such a popular feature with the ladies. But the fact is, men do not treat us the same as they treat other men. The lady in the article’s comment is telling- she wants to be able to throw on a robe and walk to the vending machine. Do you think her hesitance to do that on a co-ed floor is due to feminism? Or perhaps a lifetime of experience with how men sometimes treat strange women in public places?

(This is not to say that all fella are d-bags, most of you are perfectly nice. But the ones who are rudely and disrespectfully forward stand out more than the gentlemen who held the elevator doors for you.)

A man can be a gentleman and not be a complete pushover, which is usually what “nice guy” is code for. Most of the time when I hear “nice guys” complaining about this, it’s guys who are fairly weak-willed who choose to go after stronger-willed women. There are plenty of “nice girls” out there looking for nice guys, but guess what? They nice guys don’t want them.

I am totally fine with women having a woman-only floor if women want. If you want that, then have it, it shouldn’t bother me one way or the other. But if you do have that, then women should not complain if men also had a floor like that. If they believed women should have such a floor and men should not, how would that not be hypocritical?

A has a right to do “something” based on A’s sex. B does not have a right to do that same “something” based on B’s sex. That is sexism. (NOTE: You do not know the sex of either A or B, sexism runs both ways.)

I understand that different people treat the opposite sex differently, that is expected. But as you said, just because some men are rude, crude, and crass does not mean all are. If we don’t fix one problem at a time nothing will ever get fixed. The goal should be to try to treat men and women more equally rather than less. That means both big and small discrepancies should be bridged. Women should get wages equal to a male counterpart’s wages, and at the same time should not expect that men “have to” hold the door for women (women can hold doors for men too.)

“But if you do have that, then women should not complain if men also had a floor like that.”

I have yet to hear anyone saying they shouldn’t. As another commenter pointed out, there *are* men-only hotels, and I don’t hear anyone complaining.

Honestly, your entire commentary here seems like an oblique way to discredit feminists, for no discernible reason. You put words in their mouths that no one said, so you can argue against a point that no one made. You’ve gone out of your way to make ‘feminists’ sound unreasonable and easily butthurt, without cause.

If someone says something that you disagree with, disagree with it. But don’t make up positions for imaginary feminists to take just so you can counter them. That’s lame. And vaguely sexist (with the impllication that women are such irrational creatures that we get all upset over such things).

You keep saying “EQUAL == THE SAME” as though I am disagreeing with you. I am not. If you can quote where I have said “EQUAL == THE SAME” I will give you 1 million dollars. You can’t? hmmmm, look at that. And on top of that, despite you expressing your distaste for separate/equal facilities (totally understandable) you seem to be in support of having women only floors. You might want to look up the definition of hypocrisy, it might interest you.

Ok JennQPublic, I am done going back and forth with you. You clearly just want to be mad at someone and you picked me, congratulations.

Here is back up for what I am saying. If you don’t believe that there are people crying bloody murder because there are “men only” places, it is because you don’t want to. My MOST BASIC point in this ENTIRE conversation has been “TREAT MEN AND WOMEN EQUALLY.” If you will not agree with that or fight against it, you are BY DEFINITION sexist. Considering that you appear to fight me at every turn, it is a fair statement to say that you are sexist. Now leave me alone, I am done conversing with you.

“Considering that you appear to fight me at every turn, it is a fair statement to say that you are sexist.”

Really? Since I disagree with *you*, I must be sexist?

Sure, whatever. I’m a sexist. I’m going to go out on a limb here and posit that you are female. Simply because most of the time when I get called sexist, it’s a female saying it. Because god forbid anybody imply the inherent differences between men and women should be accepted and not vilified. *shrugs*

Again, since it turns out there are whole men-only hotels out there (google it), and I’ve heard no public outcry against them, it sounds like you are blowing smoke just to convince people a non-existent fire is there.

a) My thesis is “men and women should not be treated differently based on their sex.”
b) You disagree with my thesis.
c) Thus you believe “men and women should be treated differently based on their sex.”
d) The definition is sexist is believing “men and women should be treated differently based on their sex.”
e) Ipso facto, you are sexist.

So in this instance, yes, disagreeing with me means you are sexist since I am espousing the definition of anti-sexism. That logic is simple, easy, and essentially impossible to misunderstand. So I would LOVE hear your argument for how you are not sexist.

Secondly, I agree with all of your points, yes we should get rid of all of those differences between men and woman. I totally agree none of those disparities should exist. In what possible way do any of those large wrongs make other small wrongs okay?

Take a breath and think before posting. If you want to argue like a child and sling insults, why should be be treated any different than a child?

Yes, that is the correct link. Sorry for the broken link. (If that link doesn’t work for other people, Google “Rational Discussion Flowchart” and it is the first result.)

I all forums where I can have a signature I link to that chart to let people know what rules of discussion I abide by and what is expected of them. IRL, I won’t get into a discussion without assurance that the other side will abide by these guidelines for discussion. Too many people have no idea how to have a rational discussion that I am fed up with it. If you think you are intelligent and want other people to think so too, prove it by behaving intelligently.

Whatever. Women want it both ways. They want to be treated “special” when it suits them, and “equal” at other times. It doesn’t work that way. If its okay for women to have a special hotel floor, then its okay for for men.

Person A has a right to do “something” based on A’s sex. Person B does not have a right to do that same “something” based on B’s sex. Please use your logic to explain how that is not sexism. If you ca,n I will admit I am wrong and gracefully apologize. If you can’t or won’t it is because you are wrong.

Again, who is slinging the insults here? Once again, you lose. I would say nice try, but it really wasn’t. Obvious troll is obvious.

People like you are a real piece of work. You feel good when you believe you have made other people feel bad. Really, don’t try to deny it. I looked back at your other comments on consumerist. Not one of them I saw was positive or without you swearing at someone. You are a definitive troll. I pity people like you. If you can’t even see that making yourself feel good off of making others feel bad is wrong, you are a broken and massively flawed person. You have a character flaw, plain and simple.

Also, Lol, it is logic? Your logical support is “I bet you rarely do the same for women”. So a stranger you just saw the post of on an internet that you know nothing about, you decided to make up arbitrary BET about their personality to suit support your argument with no actual basis in reality?

Also, Lol, it is logic? Your logical support is, “I bet you rarely do the same for women.” So you just saw the post of a stranger, that you know nothing about, on the internet and you decided to make up an arbitrary BET about their personality to suit your argument with no actual basis in reality?

I see were the person you are responding to makes it tough to take their point seriously, but you are missing something. What she says about feeling threatened by aggressive men while walking down the street is very true for some women. I’m not Ms. Universe or anything, but I am very frequently made very uncomfortable by strange men on the street who make sexual comments and advances, and occasionally push into my personal space in an intimidating manner. I’m a very strong female, so I deal with this more easily than ‘nicer’ females do.

This is one of those things like racial prejudice- you don’t see it because it rarely happens in front of you, but it’s definitely happening. And fear of rape isn’t unreasonable, it also happens far more often than you think it does. The playing field between us isn’t equal, and it never will be- men and women are fundamentally different creatures, and grown ups recognize this.

I understand what you’re saying about women feeling threatened on the street. I hope you understand that this happens to men too.

I am a large and strong man that has not only felt threatened but been attacked several times. Often groups like to target the biggest guy they can find so they can prove their manliness by ganging up on him. I can assure you that a woman being threatened/beaten by one man is nothing compared to three men pummeling another. They just continue to egg each other on in a wild pack mentality.

Women have not cornered the market on vulnerability but they way a male victim of a serious beating and a female victim are treated is very telling about how our society views each sex.

I don’t discount that you have been in fights but it isn’t quite the same as I can not walk around alone at night without the thought of being attacked crossing my mind. It is NOT THE SAME for men.
If you see a group of men on the street at night and you are alone, do you avoid them?
If you are alone on a train platform and another man enters do you feel less safe?
Have you been physically or verbally intimidated by men on a regular basis since you hit puberty?

You don’t understand because it doesn’t happen to you. The way I’m treated by men on the street when I’m alone vs when I’m with another man is completely different, and I’m no shrinking violet at 5’11” tall with a sharp tongue and a very confident personality. Even I do not feel safe in many places and if I don’t I can’t imagine what its like to be a tiny petite woman.

The threat of a bar fight is just not comparable to thinking about your PERSONAL safety every day of your life when you leave the house.

I’ve seen what you’re talking about (people starting crap with big guys just ’cause they’re big), and it sucks, and I feel for you. But the level that you are harassed because of your size and the level I am harassed because of my bra size are almost certainly not comparable. And do you think men always engage in this behavior singly? Those same three guys who will gang up on you will do the same to me. They may only harass me while they will fight you, but there’s also a chance if they get me alone they will rape me, which is a concern you probably don’t share.

I’m not saying things for men are rainbows and unicorns, or that these concerns overly affect my life (I wouldn’t let them). But when women are offered a space where they can feel more at ease, it seems petty that people obliquely begrudge them that by implying that women would begrudge men having the same.

Also, note from your story that it is MEN who sometimes cause you (a big man) to feel/be unsafe. Which kind of hammers home why smaller and weaker females might want an extra buffer between us and men when we are at our most vulnerable (asleep in a strange place).

It’s okay. I knew that this poster was a troll but I responded anyway. I prefer to logically curb-stomp trolls so they have no delusions about their intelligence and then remind them how sad and pathetic their lives must be, how mistreated and powerless they must feel in real life, to to act the way they do only when they have anonymity.

“Let’s make it so women don’t have to walk down the street without fear of being harassed/catcalled or assaulted.”

Were equal right? they can just beat the shit out of the person or call the police like the rest of us so whats your point?

“Let’s make it so we don’t live in a culture where rape is expected and dismissed.”

So you wish to make it illegal as opposed to it being illegal?

“Let’s make it so women get paid the same for the same job.”

OK, do the same amount of work and you will get the same money… I don’t remember gender playing a role in minimum wages…. if they don’t pay to your liking wtf do you keep doing it? if my boss paid me less then other people of same seniority i’d be gone in a jiffy

“Let’s make it so women can be portrayed in film/music/video games without having to look like porn stars.”

No problem, find a use for women in those places so that we can portray them differently…

“Let’s make it so women aren’t treated as special second-class citizens when talking about culture/history/politics.”

Not sure what you mean… Are you upset that women have made under 1/10th the contribution to those fields and therefore we should talk about the same people 10 times to level the playing field? How about filling the gap if were all equal

“Let’s do all that shit, and then you can whine about a women’s only floor in a hotel you’ll never fucking go to in the first place you sexist little shitbag”

OK, well then I want a male only senate that “you’ll never fucking go to in the first place you sexist little shitbag” fair is fair

I agree–let’s treat women equally. Subject women to the military draft to the same extent as men. Better yet, Selective Service should institute an affirmative action policy to make up for 200+ years of discrimination. Only women should be subject to the draft for the next 200 years.

When I google “male only hotel” I get a lot of hits for gay resorts, so I think they might already exist. I also got a hit for something called The Lynx Lounge in Australia, which was an all male resort in the planning stages as of August 2010.

I’m kinda feel like calling it sexist to be a stretch. I do feel like treating women differently through things like hotel rooms does cause society to further see us as different than men. Giving me a separate hotel room doesn’t solve the social issues women currently face, but instead just continues this idea of “hey! I’m a woman! I’m DIFFERENT!” (I feel the same way about ladies-only sections of gyms). Furthermore, I don’t see how the rooms would really get rid of men on those floors. I lived in an all girls dorm last year, and it wasn’t like men didn’t get invited upstairs.

Honey, we ARE different. The daily situations and challenges we face in life are different than men’s (and vice-versa, of course). I’m all for equality, but it’s disingenuous to pretend that we are somehow the same just because we should be treated equally.

Maybe you’re comfortable being ogled by oversexed morons at the gym. Some of us aren’t. Gyms have figured that out and catered to what female clients prefer. Please don’t begrudge us a bit of privacy on the notion that the only road to being treated equally is to stick our fingers in our ears at any suggestion that men and women may not, in fact, be exactly the same.

Says an Atlanta traveler who often stays on a female-only floor at a Minnesota hotel, “I can put on a bathrobe and go out there and grab a snack and it is fine because you know you won’t run into a guy. And it is kind of pretty.”

So, I guess she never wears a bathing suite at the pool or on the beach, because that would create an uncomfortable situation? You know, being that there will be men there.

Unless there are shared accommodations or non-private bathrooms like in hostels or some small hotels, I can’t see the need for this. And it is not THAT hard to wear something like yoga pants to pop out to the snack machine. As a woman, I would not necessarily feel more comfortable or safe traipsing around in my bathrobe just because there are no guys around.

What I wouldn’t have minded seeing during work-related travel was a business floor (for lack of better word). Too many times trying to work too close to a loud pool area, or a family room.

I thought female bathrooms were overwhelmingly more dirty and unclean than mens? At least based on everything I’ve ever heard. Just imagine the hidden horrors that await in rooms that have had double the amount of women in them!

Thats the biggest difference. Guys toilets almost always have a gigantic crap floating in the toilet along with half a roll of paper, whereas i have never seen a girls bathroom have that. (The guys bathroom was locked and i REALLY REALLY had to go and there were no tall out of the way trees handy.)

Think of the make-up stains on the bathroom counters in a few years. Add to that all of the hair fuzz that builds up with all of that blow drying. Will signs pop up over the toilets too admonishing guests not to flush anything other than toilet paper?

You’re right in suggesting that the rooms will get an extra heavy work out being strictly for women.

Men are generally slobs. I am one, I ought to know. Bachelors are worse. But the filth women leave behind, while of a different nature than what men leave, is usually just as bad.

Men leave lone spots of grime that are surrounded by mostly clean areas. The areas tend to be concentrated awfulness, but are easily dealt with. Female grime tends to be less intense, but spread over a much wider area.

In a male locker room, you’ll find toilets that someone “forgot” to flush, dribbles from men with bad aim and the odd bit of juvenile pranking (saran wrap, blocked sink drains, etc).

In a female locker room, the showers will be wall to wall hair (as will much of the rest of the area) and there will be makeup spills here and there, usually within arm’s reach of all the supplies needed for the woman to clean it up herself, but she never bothered to. The individual concentrated trouble spots will be less horrific than the men’s locker room, but the sheer volume of overall mess will be an order of magnitude worse.

Most men are not alpha types. The alphas tend to be the worst about leaving messes, I chalk it up to dominance issues, since those messes usually qualify as scent marking. The betas and lower are actually fairly averse to scent marking, so the men’s restroom gets dirty fairly slowly. Women are different. Every woman has a nesting urge, no matter how repressed, and they tend to demonstrate it in areas they feel safe in. Privacy is a form of safety. Messes follow. Two hours after you clean the men’s restroom, it’s usually almost pristine aside from the odd dribble. Two hours after cleaning a women’s restroom, there’s a better than 50% chance nobody can tell you cleaned it that day.

Then there’s the personnel issue. Most janitors are men. There are female janitors, but they’re kinda scarce. A man finding a female janitor cleaning the men’s restroom will blush, stammer a bit, might make a pass or a really dumb joke, but will usually lock himself in a stall instead of using a urinal if he really HAS to go NOW. A woman finding a male janitor cleaning the women’s restroom, on the other hand, will typically about-face and leave, while a small minority will freak the hell out.

I truly hated that janitorial job, but I needed the paycheck. Can you tell I’m still a bit bitter? =P

Dwight Schrute:(Noticing the women having a meeting) That’s a terrible idea.Jim Halpert: What is?Dwight Schrute: Them, in there all together. If they stay in there too long, they’re gonna get on the same cycle. Wreak havoc on our plumbing.

…and the Atlanta traveler, so the fact that there are no men means that you can walk out of your room w/o any clothes on? Somehow it’s OK to expose other women to that? Would you say the same thing if the entire floor was filled with lesbian’s…

It’s possible, on the MMORPG Anarchy Online, to create a character that is completely bare-ass naked, aside from tribal-style tattoos. Just for kicks, I created a female character with that “armor” suit.

Oddly enough, most of the demands that I put on clothes came from male characters. Either women gender-bend as much as men do on those games, or men have greater issues with female nudity than previously reported.

You obviously don’t know any lesbians. Women, in general, are a lot less overt about their ogling. But since you apparently think only “dykes” like ugly women, you probably don’t really know anything about women in general.

Can I have a floor that excludes golfers?
Imagine the joy of not having to be dragged into an annoying conversation about how great the links are around this or that particular convention center when all you wanted was a bucket of ice and a bag of fritos

Can’t tell you how sad I am that I had to scroll this far down to see somebody point this out. This isn’t even remotely similar to the “ladies-night lawsuit”; in that, there was no chance of a denial of service. In this instance, yeah… it’s not inconceivable that there could be some sort of conference int town that would flood the hotel with men. Men who probably wouldn’t appreciate being told they couldn’t have one of the available rooms due to the way they were born.

Oh yeah. Gender-based discrimination is gender-based discrimination. If it’s illegal to have male-only areas that women are forbidden to enter, it’s also illegal to have female-only areas of the same type.

Speaking as an ex hotel desk clerk I would have loved to have had this. we would have nicknamed it the nervous nellies floor or something like it. At least twice a month some woman would feel the need to tell me, and everyone else in the lobby who could hear her shouting, that she was a woman traveling alone and didn’t feel safe because some random guy was in the hall near her room, or at the pool. They always wanted me to call the police because some guy left his own room to get ice and it made her uncomfortable that he looked at her. So after announcing to the world that they were alone they wanted me to ruin someone else’s stay for the sin of having eyes and a penis.

I would object more to the upgraded amenities part. By giving women better rooms because they are women is stupid and it treats them like a separate class that needs to be pampered. I’m sure most guys would prefer a better room. And the notion that it’s ok to walk around a hotel in a bathrobe is just idiotic. Similarly, if guys walk around in a towel, they should be thrown out.

Ahhh yes, because above a clean, well-appointed, reasonably priced room, I would appreciate the ability to walk to the vending machine in my robe. I wouldn’t stay on a female-only floor for security reasons alone. If I were some kind of sex predator or criminal in general, that would the perfect place to find women staying all by themselves. No thanks, I’ll mix in with the families and men and kids, etc.

That’s called the men’s dorm at any college/university that still has gender specific dorm buildings. They all ran around in boxers with no shirt even when there were women visiting the floor when I went to school. Soccer players, wrestlers, football players all running around in their underwear. Not that I was oogling them. They just were.

A man has to get my attention with his personality before I find him attractive. I’m strange like that.

We have a large upper crust hotel that separates men and women in different halves (wings) of the same building, It’s not sexist, It’s Muslim and that’s how they roll. Can’t even stay in the same room with your spouse. Well, that’s different.
Greensboro, NC, near the airport.
Not sure it is still that way, it was when I delivered stuff there about three years ago.

I think the term equal is throwing some people off. Women don’t want to be equal as in the same as men, or treated the same as men exactly. We want to be equal as in valued the same as men. To be treated as if we have the same worth and are needed and as useful as men are. That we won’t have our mental abilities questions just because we are female and not male. That we should be safe to walk the street, in our home, or on a date with out being harmed and then being told it was our fault for what ever reason.

Not all men are the same or as intelligent or competent as other men. The same is true with women. If someone is stupid it’s not because of their gender, but because they themselves are dumb.

My value should be on my intelligence, competence, and abilities. Not by how pretty I look in a skirt, how well I can cook, and my ability to clean the house. Being sexy and attractive is for finding a mate, not a basis on if I should get the job.

You can laugh but I would use it. Not necessarily for all the amenities but for the security factor alone. As a young female traveling by herself there are some not so great guys in hotels. I’ve actually stayed at nicer hotels overseas who, at the request of my company, would have a security guard meet me at the car and walk me to my room or wait with me until a car came in the morning. Just got back from a trip where I had some not so pleasant men on my floor, thankfully I was with a coworker and I could duck in his room until they passed. Its sad but there are still some pigs out there.